USING PRESCHOOL MATERIALS TO MODIFY THE LANGUAGE OF DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN1

Although language remediation programs have generally been conducted with the use of special materials in structured group settings, traditional preschool practice emphasizes “incidental teaching” incorporated into children's free play. To determine if incidental teaching practices could be effective in improving children's speech, this study investigated the spontaneous speech of 12 disadvantaged children during free-play periods over eight months of a preschool program. Whenever the children selected a preschool play material, they were prompted and required to ask for it, first by name (noun), then by name plus a word that described the material (adjective-noun combination), then by use of a color adjective-noun combination, and finally by requesting the material and describing how they were going to use it (compound sentence). As each requirement was made, the children's general use of that aspect of language markedly increased, but little change was noted in the amount or nature of the children's interactions with teachers or their use of a set of materials to which they had free access. This study demonstrates that preschool free-play periods can be powerful “incidental teaching” periods by capitalizing on moments when children seek new play materials.     

Compliance without pressure: Some further data on the foot-in-the-door technique

A replication of the Freedman and Fraser (1966) “foot-in-the-door” technique was attempted in which subjects were exposed to one of two prior requests and were then asked to comply with a larger request. The results showed that subjects receiving prior requests complied with the larger request significantly more often than did control subjects. The mechanism by which the technique operates was discussed.     

IN VIVO LANGUAGE INTERVENTION: UNANTICIPATED GENERAL EFFECTS

After observing the lack of generalization of language trained in highly structured training sessions using established behavior modification techniques, “incidental teaching” procedures were developed to change the use of specified language behaviors in the natural environment. This paper reports an analysis of the general changes in the language, other than that specifically targeted by the incidental teaching procedures, used by disadvantaged preschool children. The daily language samples of disadvantaged children involved in a previously reported experiment to increase compound sentence usage were reexamined and compared to comparable records of other disadvantaged children and of middle-class children of college parents in order to assess possible general effects of the intervention program. Whereas the language that both groups of comparison children used changed little across the preschool year, the amount of talking by the children in the experimental program increased markedly. Their use of more elaborate vocabulary and more elaborate sentences also increased in direct proportion to the increases in overall language use, such that both language use and language elaboration in the experimental group of children changed from a pattern similar to the comparison group of disadvantaged children to a pattern similar to the comparison group of middle-class children. It is argued that some general features of the incidental teaching procedure—differentially attending to child overtures and responding relative to the child's selected topic (reinforcer)—contributed to the increase in overall language use beyond the specific language behavior targeted, and that this increase in the probability of children's talking itself resulted in the substantial increases in elaboration seen in the children's spontaneous language. Because, at least in children with fairly well-developed language repertoires, language use is contextually controlled, talking more involves talking in more varied and complex contexts, which inevitably produces the use of more elaborate language.     

Preventing Groupthink Revisited: Evaluating and Reforming Groups in Government

This article critically examines Janis's recommendations for preventing groupthink in high-level policymaking. It puts forward three models of small group functioning in government, each of which highlights different dimensions of collegial policymaking and distinct criteria for evaluating group performance. Each model also inspires different proposals for groupthink prevention and improvement of group performance in general. Proposals for designing and managing high-level groups in government need to take into account these multiple perspectives. Furthermore, their proponents should be aware of the institutionalized and competitive context in which political decision groups operate. Evaluations of their performance and proposals for reforming them are inevitably tied up in this process. This has important implications for the feasibility of recommendations set forth by small group analysts. The article concludes with an agenda for increasing the policy relevance and practical feasibility of research on political decision groups.     

Comparison between FSS-II scores of two groups of university students sampled 15 yr apart.

Undergraduate students were contacted in classes at Memorial University of Newfoundland during 1975 and asked to complete the FSS-II, on a voluntary basis; 511 students (232 male and 279 female subjects) provided enough data for analyses. In 1990, the same procedure was carried out, resulting in a comparable group of 359 students (161 male and 198 female subjects). Contrary to predictions, the 1990 students were more fearful than the 1975 group and the increase in fearfulness was contributed exclusively by women students. The component of fear contributing most to this increase related to social evaluation and violence.     

The reentry female student in marriage and family training

The challenges of feminist family therapists of gender bias in family therapy training and practice models need to be considered in relation to the predominance of reentry women in masters degree programs in marriage and family therapy. This article describes a developmental training model that incorporates feminist-informed values into curriculum, program policies, instructional strategies, and program structure. The model builds on the assumption that gender-associated behaviors of both sexes have contextually determined value. Training for the appropriate application of gender-associated behaviors rather than for their inclusion or exclusion can increase female reentry student flexibility and self-confidence.     

Endorsing a negative in-group stereotype as a self-protective strategy: Sacrificing the group to save the self

This work examined if stigmatized targets will embrace negative in-group stereotypes in order to protect their self-esteem from the threat of stereotypic failures. All studies focused on the stereotype that women have lower math ability than men. In Study 1, women who failed a math test showed buffered self-esteem if they were first given the opportunity to endorse this stereotype. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that women, but not men, increased their endorsement of this stereotype following math failure. Study 3 showed that the tendency to embrace this stereotype in response to failure was most pronounced among women with high trait self-esteem. Together, these findings suggest that there are contexts in which stigmatized individuals can protect their self-esteem in the face of stereotypic failures by embracing the very stereotypes that would have predicted their failure.